Anna, the wife of former footballer Park Joo-ho, has shared the fertility-preserving treatment that made her fourth pregnancy possible after battling breast cancer, saying she chose to start chemo immediately rather than delay treatment for egg freezing.
In a video posted October 15 on her YouTube channel “Anna With Anna,” titled “Sharing My Breast Cancer Story With My Attending Physician, Professor Kim Hee-jung of Asan Medical Center,” Anna sat down with the doctor who treated her and walked through the decisions she faced before chemotherapy began.
According to Xports News, Anna recalled that Professor Kim suggested freezing her eggs before starting chemo. “I was told it might be good to collect and store eggs before beginning chemotherapy,” she said. But Anna, already a mother of three and facing an aggressive illness, wanted to move fast: she said she simply wanted to begin the treatment right away rather than dwell on what might happen in the future.
Her doctor offered a second path: an ovary-suppressing injection that temporarily puts the body into menopause, essentially putting the uterus “to sleep” during treatment. Anna chose the injection and received it before chemo started. Professor Kim explained that chemotherapy can weaken ovarian function, but the protective injection worked well in Anna’s case: she received it while undergoing chemo, and her ovaries were well shielded. The doctor added that the injection does not guarantee pregnancy for everyone who wants it, but Anna, she noted, conceived smoothly. “I had cancer, but my fertility was intact,” Anna laughed.
Sports Chosun reported that Anna previously revealed in August that she had received triple-negative breast cancer complete remission status more than three years ago, and that she decided on her fourth pregnancy only after her doctors confirmed it was safe. She is now in her seventh month, with the baby expected in 2027.
Anna married Park Joo-ho in 2015, and the couple became beloved stars of KBS’s “The Return of Superman” with their three children Na-eun, Gun-hoo and Jin-woo. Anna first went public with her breast cancer battle in 2022, and recovered through chemotherapy and surgery. Her latest video also touched on her lifestyle at the time of diagnosis, pushing back against the idea that a specific diet caused her illness: “I didn’t eat fast food and didn’t eat a lot,” she said, adding that hunting for a single cause for cancer is wrong.
